Whitsunday's to Townsville (11th July)

As planned we picked up Amanda at Hammo (aka Fat Island) on Friday 27th of June.  We enjoyed a couple of days at Hammo including a day sunning ourselves by the pool and the highlight of the stay was our trip over to Dent Island which is right next door to Hammo.  They have built an 18hole golf course over on Dent however, for those of us not quite up to playing on this very challenging course, you can take the soft option of lunch and tour of the course which was excellent fun.  You hop on the golf ferry at Hammo for the short trip across the Dent Passage where you are picked up in a mini bus and taken to the club house for a pretty swanky lunch with an awesome view over Hamilton Island.  Once lunch is complete the team all hop into golf buggies for the island tour.  As we were a group of 3 we got to go with the guide and lead the party which meant that Amanda and I, who were sitting in the back, had an excellent view of the golf buggy chaos behind us.  Eventually all 12 buggies made it back just in time to catch the ferry back to Hammo.  As it was such a lovely afternoon we decided that we should finish off the day with drinks at the Bommie Bar at the Hamilton Island YC before calling the day quits.

View from Golf Cart on Dent Island

On Monday it is time to get moving again and our first stop is over the Whitehaven Beach for a few nights before heading around to the top of Hook Island for a bit of snorkelling around at Maureen;s Cove with our overnight stop at Stonehaven on the 3rd of July.  We were lucky enough to catch up with our good friends Bill and Sue on Dilligaf again and naturally dropped in for a few sundown drinks!!

Whitehaven Beach

As the temperatures are now starting get a little cool in the Whitsunday's it is definitely the right time to be heading north again.  Our first stop on our trek north is Gloucester Passage which is well known for the Shag Islet YC, Monte's Resort and also the Gloucester Passage Resort which is where we decided to stop in for drinks and a meal.  As the wind is forecast to abate over the next few days we figure it is better to keep moving north while we can sail rather than going into Bowen so on the 4th July (Independence Day) we are on our way to Cape Upstart for the night and then up to Cape Bowling Green before making it into Horseshoe Bay at Magnetic Island on the 6th. 

Poor Imitation of Noodies

When we arrive at Maggie Island the weather is amazingly calm and as hoped warmer and to make it even better we have the same forecast for the rest of the week!  As we made it north a little quicker than initially planned it means we are lucky enough to spend a few days out at Maggie which always a bonus.  We had a few sunset drinks at the Marlin Bar, had a lovely walk over to Balding Bay (aka Noodie Beach) and Radical Bay (Family Friendly Beach) and also took the bus down to Picnic Bay for a spot of lunch at the pub.

Sunset at Horseshoe Bay

We arrived in at the Breakwater Marina at around 9am yesterday morning (Thursday 10th July) in order to meet the tide as the depth at the marina entrance is only 0.5mts so we need at least 1.5 and preferably 2mts to get in and out!  Luckily you get a lot of big tides around Townsville.

Surprise Surprise  - our cruising buddies Arjuna and Dilligaf  have beaten us in!  Townsville is a really nice spot to spend a few days and after giving the boat a bath it is off for a walk down the Esplanade and then over to the Yacht Club for a meal with Bill an Sue.

Today we are going to head over to the Aquarium which is always worth a visit and may also get to the Maritime Museum if we get time.   Amanda is getting voted off the island tomorrow and is heading back to winter in Melbourne.  We are thinking of spending at least 1 week here and hoping to get up to see Margy and Joseph on their cane property at Mourilyan during our stopover.

Some other highlights during the last couple of weeks:

• Mark caught a fish and we ate it!
• Carlton finally managed another win against the Saints
• Dan Ricciardo got a well earned 3rd in the F1
• Matt Lawrence (Mark's nephew) and Matt Seton finished the Melbourne to Vanuatu Race (~1800NM) last night on Jazz Player which is an awesome effort.  Hope they are enjoying the celebrations which I am sure will continue for a while.  Great to see Adrian and the Geomatic crew make the trip over to Port Vila to welcome in the competing crews  - even though it ended up being in the Flying division. after having to retire from the race.

Matt & Matt - Jazz Player